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I Dunno
I was a police officer for 22 years, and by officer I mean that I never was promoted. I was never a Sergeant, Lieutenant, Commander, or Chief. During my career I had several disagreements with other officers, detectives, prosecutors, and higher-ups, including the chief of police. Sometimes I was wrong, and I admitted my error. Sometimes I thought I was right, but I agreed to comply with the decision of someone who was getting paid a lot more than me (for good reasons). I always thought I had a solid basis for my actions, though, again, sometimes I was wrong. I don’t think I ever said anything like this, though:
Sen. Rubio: “…you perceived it as an order, given his position, the setting, and the like, and the sum of the circumstances.”
James Comey: “Yes.”
Rubio: “At the time, did you say anything to the President about that is not an appropriate request or did you tell the White House Counsel ‘That is not an appropriate request, someone needs to go tell the President that he can’t do these things?'”
Comey: “I did not, no.”
Rubio: “Okay, why?”
Comey: “I dunno … (blah blah blah)”
“I dunno!?” You’re the [expletive] head of the FBI, you idiot. You darn well better know how to deal with something as simple as an inappropriate request by the President. What are you going to say when asked how to stop terrorist plots, “Beats me?”
When Comey got fired, I thought Our Dear Leader did it in a particularly incompetent fashion. I now see that Comey got no worse than he deserved.
Published in General
I gotta second this. The more Comey testifies the more I realize he was a problem, not a solution.
We’ve all read Comey’s statement to the Committee, and now we’ve heard his testimony. My impression is that he’s definitely not the kind of guy I want in that job.
As I sit here after it’s all over, I can’t help but wonder what the fuss was about. Comey alleged no crime, and what’s worse, he knew before he agreed to testify that he wasn’t going to allege any crime. For all the hype, Comey (and likely several senators) already knew that Comey’s testimony would not offer proof of anything … Comey wasn’t even going to allege anything.
So why was he there?
Instead, the fired employee was given the opportunity to make the sensationalist charge that Trump lied(!) when Trump publicly described Comey as incompetent. Wait a second there. When the boss says you’re incompetent, is he lying? We’re not talking about an objective fact that is hidden or distorted; to the contrary, the boss’ evaluation of your job performance is a subjective judgment that he’s entitled to make. True, you may disagree with his estimate, but we usually don’t use the term “lying” to describe a difference in opinion. Remember what Trump was saying: Trump was saying that Comey sucked at his job. Comey describes that as “lying.”
The Senate Committee is theoretically holding hearings to “investigate” the possibility of wrongdoing, but they must have known that Comey wasn’t going to allege any crime … instead, they gave him a forum where he could pass off his self-serving complaints as if it were testimony in an investigation. They gave him a chance to publicly bitch about getting fired.
And for this nonsense, we have yet even more postponement of any agenda, or of replacing the Obama bureaucracy.
Oh look! That’s a really big squirrel!
From Comey’s descriptions of their interactions, it is clear that Comey thinks D. Trump is a lying liar. Do you think Trump figured that out? Of course. Does that give the boss a cause to sack a top manager?
As Alan Dershowitz said, it is in order, and even if you think it is poor form or somehow unethical, it is not a crime, nor a violation of federal employment rules.
Exactly.
I thought when Comey was fired that it was either mindless incompetence, or it was because Trump suspected Comey was a leaker and firing him when he was out of the office would prevent him from doing any more immediate damage. I leaned towards the former until Comey’s confession.
He was going to keep the “collusion” investigation (of which he himself said had no identifiable basis in fact) going in order to keep his job. Trump called his bluff, and it turned out Comey didn’t even have openers.
The only thing that never leaked was that the President wasn’t personally under investigation for anything. That helped with the bluff, though. Isn’t that curious?
Comey tried to play J. Edgar Hoover and came out as Inspector Clouseau.
Kim Strassel at the WSJ (behind a pay wall) has a fantastic article on this point. Here’s a little “best of the best” …
Comedy told two verifiable lies yesterday and also admitted to being a leaker. The four Democrats of the Gang of Eight also showed that they knew Trump was not under investigation and have been lying for ten months. This of course assumes that Comey isn’t lying about that as well.
At this point, Comey has reduced himself to an unnameable source.
Indeed he has.
Ignoble. A word that isn’t used very often anymore, but must be used for James Comey.
Note: I transcribed the snippet of testimony myself from the audio on the Andrew Klavan podcast. You can find a more professional transcript here.
What are the two verifiable lies?
I’m not being snarky. I haven’t read or listened to his testimony, and don’t want to take the time to wade through the whole thing.
One thing for sure, far as I am concerned the FBI are a bunch of political hacks serving their Democrat masters. Their purpose is political theater to expunge wrong doing from Democrats such as Hillary while running crusades against any of the Democrats enemies. Many of the conservatives I know feel the same way. That came about while the FBI was led by Comey and before Trump became President And fired him. The libs I know are a bit confused about Comey. They hated him for destroying Hillary but now seem to like him since he is currently their paladin kingslayer.
It puts you in mind of what LBJ said of J. Edgar Hoover when asked why he didn’t fire Hoover. It’s now evident that Comey has been outside the tent for some time.
I think your description above certainly fits Comey, and maybe even some FBI officers, but I’ve been hearing that plenty of FBI members are not Comey fans, and greatly resented all the legwork they did on Hillary not resulting in anything, and I hope that is true.
And that’s the rub of all this. There were lots of good reasons to sack the guy, it just wasn’t handled as well as it should have been. Comey hasn’t redeemed himself at all.
Comey is a weasel.* I reserve the right to revise and extend my opinion.
* I was going to say feckless cr@@weasel but I believe that is copyrighted and I don’t think Ricochet could afford the licensing fee.
One has to wonder if the Republicans aren’t just fine allowing the Democrats to continue with this charade. It takes them off the hook for not getting anything accomplished. But does it really…….?
Ironic that the very thing voters love about Trump, his not being a politician, is also the thing that gets him into the most trouble.
You, sir, are being unkind to weasels. What have they ever done to you?
That’s why the term “crap weasel” was invented.
He lied about the timel on his memo. He claims he gave to his friend after Trump tweeted about a tape and he woke up and gave to his friend on the 15 th and the NYT had printed an article on his memo on the 12th. He also lied about there being no directive from the DOJ as two Jeff Sessions recusing him self.
One has to wonder, as I have, if the average center right voter, who as the estimable Jay Cost always reminds us has only a one word answer YES or NO, won’t run the following calculation in 2018:
We elected a Republican House and nothing changed.
We elected a Republican Senate and nothing changed.
We elected a Republican President and nothing changed.
Maybe this year my vote is NO and I just take the kids to the park instead.
And that my friends is how you get Pelosi and Schumer back in power.
Trump’s attorney is apparently filing a complaint with the Senate Judiciary Committee. In May Comey said under oath that he had never had any political interference in an investigation.
In June he alleged Trump attempting to interfere and Yates demanding he change investigation to matter. Getting fired seems to have changed his testimony. He lied under oath in one of the two contradictory statements.
Great thread but this is one premise I do not agree with. We are still pretending that Washington has professionals and rules of decorum and protocol that need to be followed. Comey is a snake and deserved the firing he got. No letting him “resign,” no giving him a heads up, nothing. I loved that he was thousands of miles away and thought it was a joke that he was fired. I would love to have seen that crap weasel’s face when he realized it was true. I think we are just beginning to realize how nasty the swamp really is. Schumer may be right that the IC have ways of making your life hell on earth, but that does not make it right and I hope Trump keeps it up.
Yup. If there’s ever been an election that was screaming for the powers that be to change their ways, it was 2016. And nothing has happened. So what’s the [COC] point? If 2016 couldn’t get it done, what will?
The results would not be good at all, but I am sympathetic to this idea and have even flirted with it myself. If I have to choose between a party that wants to “fundamentally change” America and a Party that will let them while claiming to be fighting, then what is the point.
You know, it takes time for drain-o into disintegrate the hair and gross in the tub drain. The clog has been groomed and cared fir for 8+ years.
Trump is our Drain-o for the clog.
Trump is the Chemo for our cancer.
Lets give the remedy time to work.
Did Comey really say “I dunno” or is that just short hand?
As to your last question, what will it take to get it done? I shudder to think.
Especially in light the left’s general hostility to (1) the rule of law, (2) law enforcement, (3) anyone disagreeing with whatever has the left mouthing off at the moment, and (4) traditional American virtues such as self-reliance, working hard to get ahead, and being free to act and taking responsibility for one’s own actions.